Monday, March 14, 2011

Jamaica is homeless shelter epicenter

Local leaders in southern Queens have cried out for years that their communities shoulder more than their fair share of the borough's homeless shelters.

Turns out they were right.

Of the borough's 18 shelters, 14 are in the Jamaica area, according to a city Department of Homeless Services list obtained by the Daily News through a Freedom of Information Act request.

But a DHS official said yesterday that the distribution is fair because more than half of Queens' homeless families come from the Jamaica area. And 43% of the borough's homeless single adults are also from southeast Queens, said DHS spokeswoman Heather Janik.

But The News found additional facilities for the homeless and formerly homeless not included in the city tally. That wasn't a surprise to local officials.

About a month ago, Valerie Lewis, the principal of PS 124 in South Ozone Park, noticed students who lived in the Skyway Hotel homeless shelter two blocks from the school began missing class. Concerned about the pattern of absences, she walked over to the shelter which housed homeless families at 132-10 South Conduit Ave., and was horrified at what she found.

Families, given only five days' notice, were uprooted. The water in the building was turned off. Furniture was being thrown into the street.

"What was going on there was egregious," Lewis said.

Without warning, the shelter was reclassified a "men only shelter," and local residents and officials, irate at the City for what it calls "lack of respect" for their neighborhood, have grown further incensed. Nobody, not the shelter's neighbors, nor local officials, nor Community Board 10, knew it was happening. By the time parents and community members gathered at PS 124 on March 3, more than 30 men had already moved in.

Lewis said she had contacted the City and the new owners of the shelter, who had told her that the homeless population among single adults had risen, necessitating the need for more shelters, and families were being moved to parts of the City where there were "more opportunities." By the end of March, she said, the shelter would house up to 180 men.

URGENT!! ORGANIZE NOW BEFORE ITS TOO LATE! THE SAME THING IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN IN EAST ELMHURST NY!THE KINGS INN FAMILY CENTER LOCATED AT 8702 23 AVE EAST ELMHURST WHICH HOUSES SINGLE WOMEN AND CHILDREN IS ABOUT TO BE CONVERTED TO A SINGLE MEN SHELTER AND ALL THE CHILDREN THERE WILL BE DISPLACED AND DISPERSED ALL OVER THE CITY, WITHOUT REGARD TO THEIR WELL BEING!! THIS WILL BE DONE TO HOUSE EX-CONS, REGISTERED SEX OFFENDERS, VIOLENT CRIMINALS, PEDOPHILES, AND GOD KNOWS WHO.... "THANKS" TO DEPT OF HOMELESS SERVICES (DHS) THE COMMUNITY OF EAST ELMHURST HAS NOT BEEN NOTIFIED, JUST LIKE THEY DID NOT NOTIFY ANYONE AT THE SKYWAY NEIGHBORHOOD!! THE EXACT SAME THING WILL HAPPEN IN EAST ELMHURST, IF THIS IS ALLOWED TO HAPPEN, AND THE QUIET NEEDY WOMEN AND VULNERABLE CHILDREN OF THE KINGS INN FAMILY SHELTER ARE REMOVED, EX-CONS AND POTENTIAL RE-OFFENDERS ARE ALLOWED TO MOVE IN INTO THIS NEIGHBORHOOD.PLEASE STOP THIS BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!! MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!!! TELL THE BLOOMBERG ADMIN YOU WILL NOT STAND FOR THIS!!!SPEAK TO YOUR NEIGHBORS!! ORGANIZE AND DO WHATEVER YOU CAN TO KEEP THIS NICE NEIGHBORHOOD CLEAN AND CRIME FREE!!! PLEASE CONTACT COMMUNITY BOARD 3- EAST ELMHURST NY 82-11 37 AVETEL # 718-458-2707 FAX 718-458-3316CONTACT GRACE LAWRENCE AND GIOVANNA REID, DIST MGREMAIL: COMMUNITYBOARD3@NYC.RR.COM

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